CHALLENGE: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security sought an engaging way to instruct agricultural first responders in the concepts and best practices of biosecurity during a potential animal disease outbreak scenario. After reviewing several immersive products previously developed by Vertex Solutions Group (VSG), the client determined that immersive learning courseware would provide the most interactive, realistic, and motivating training method.

SOLUTION: VSG developed training with the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s EAS Office for the DHS Agricultural Defense Branch on biosecurity concepts and best practices. The training was developed as immersive learning courseware and followed an animal disease outbreak scenario in an interactive game-like online environment. The VSG team:

Created a custom Graphical User Interface (GUI), designed 3D characters and 3D environments, recorded narration and character interaction, programmed courseware, and added ambient sound.

Developed mobile applications for both iOS and Android platforms.

RESULT: An immersive course that simulates a real agricultural first responder site visit to test for a potential disease outbreak, requiring the learner to:

Apply biosecurity best practices while navigating through multiple scenes

Follow processes and make critical decisions while testing for contamination

Practice contamination prevention during and upon completion of the site visit

The DHS client was so pleased with our learning solution that they requested to extend our work by adding more features and functionality to the course. This course will be available to all the nation’s agricultural first responders to help educate and protect them if an animal outbreak were to occur.